Staying eco-friendly can be difficult and it’s easy to get into bad habits, like leaving the computer on at night or only printing on one side of the paper. However, just a few changes to your printing habits can help give your green credentials a boost.

Choose the correct equipment

If you’re still using separate devices to print, scan and fax, it’s probably time to invest in a multifunction printer. Using an MFP is not only more convenient, it will also save you money on your energy bills. Choosing the right printer can make a huge difference to your CO2 emissions; for instance, Kyocera ECOSYS and Xerox solid ink printers produce 85-90% less waste than a conventional colour laser printer. For a more detailed look at choosing the right printer, read our article Choosing an Eco Friendly Printer.

‘Do I really need to print this?’

Before you print, you should ask yourself these five words, ‘Do I really need this?’ If you really must print something, there are several ways that you can keep your paper usage to a minimum. The easiest and most obvious is to duplex print – if your printer has a duplex unit, it can be set to print on both sides of the paper by default.

Another easy way to save paper is to make use of the print preview. How many print-outs end up in the bin because they didn’t turn out as you expected? A quick look at the print preview page will let you know that your Excel spreadsheet should be printed in landscape, not portrait, orientation.

Reuse, Recycle and Reduce

We’ve talked about how to reduce your energy and paper consumption but it doesn’t stop there. With just a couple of small tweaks, you can cut right down on you ink and toner usage too. Even something as simple as changing your font can make a difference; did you know, for example that Century Gothic uses 30% less toner than Arial?

Internal documents don’t always need to be best quality – draft quality will often do and it will save you money. The same goes for paper – sales and marketing material might require high quality, glossy paper but an internal memo can be printed on recycled paper.

Don’t forget to recycle your toners; all the manufacturers offer a freepost service so you can send back your empty cartridges. If you get through a lot of toner, call the Danwood Green Team and ask about having a cartridge recycling bin in your office.

Finally, you can reduce waste by re-using empty cartridges. In other words, by buying compatible toner and ink. All our own brand compatibles are high quality refurbished cartridges and come with a two year guarantee. Re-using cartridges has a much smaller environmental impact than making new ones, or even recycling them, so by buying compatibles you’re really making a difference.

Remember to Switch Off

Quite often, printers use almost as much energy in standby as when they’re on. It’s important, therefore, to switch off your device at night to save energy. Many devices have a sleep mode that uses almost no power. You can adjust the settings so that the printer enters sleep mode automatically after a certain amount of time, or at night.

These are just a few examples to help you go green with your office printing. For more ideas, check out our articles in the Environment section of our blog. If you need help choosing a laser printer for your office, please feel free to contact us.